More local schools run their own special-ed programs to save money

As mandated special-education spending continues to creep up, school systems across the South Shore are turning to “in district” programs in an effort to keep those expenses from getting out of control.

Braintree school officials faced a choice last year. The district had seven elementary-age students with severe disabilities. Some had multiple physical and learning conditions. Others had autism. One still couldn’t speak.

“They could have gone out of the district,” special-education director Jeffrey Rubin said, referring to expensive residential schools or other special programs that could have cost Braintree $100,000 a year for each youngster.

Instead, Braintree formed its own classroom program for the group, with a special education teacher, five assistant teachers, an occupational therapist and a speech therapist. That dropped the per-pupil expense for those seven students to less than $40,000 a year.

One of every six Massachusetts students – 160,000 – now get some level of special-education services. As mandated special-education spending continues to creep up, school systems across the South Shore and the state are turning to “in district” programs like Braintree’s in an effort to keep those expenses from getting out of control.

From 2003 to 2012, special-ed spending by all the state’s districts rose from 17.7 percent of total school budgets to 20.6 percent, according to the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. That’s a 17 percent rise in nine years.

It’s higher in some South Shore districts – 26.7 percent in Braintree, 24.3 in Weymouth, 23.6 in Marshfield and 23.1 percent in Hingham, according to the state.

Other districts are holding their costs below the state average. Quincy, the South Shore’s biggest district, spent just 16.7 percent of its total school budget on special ed. Norwell spent 16.8 percent, Duxbury 15.6, Pembroke 15.5.

In Quincy, where 15.5 percent of the student population has special-education needs, the city is fighting a lawsuit to reimburse one student’s parents for hotel, legal and other costs associated with placing their special-needs child in a private school in western Massachusetts. The city provides for most students in the district, with 89 special-education teachers in nine alternative programs supported by nine speech and hearing therapists.

A lower number of special-ed students doesn’t always make a difference in a district’s spending. Only 16 percent of Marshfield’s students and 17 percent of Weymouth’s are in special education, yet the special-ed budgets in both towns are among the highest on the South Shore.

Weymouth Superintendent Kenneth Salim said the town’s special-education spending has dropped since 2012 – to 22.2 percent for the 2013-2014 school year – but he said he and the school committee make annual spending decisions “based on the educational needs of the students,” rather than to meet a spending cap.

Page 2 of 2 - Rubin, Braintree’s special-education director, agreed. “We figure out what they need and then figure out how to fund it,” he said.

He and other special-education directors say schools get a double benefit from running their own programs – they’re cheaper, and more students stay with their classmates, in their own community.

“Parents love it,” Rubin said.

Restored state special-ed funding has helped ease the financial pressure. The state pays local districts a portion of what they spend for the most seriously challenged students, who need the most expensive services.

If a town or city has to send a student out of district to a specialized school or residential program, the student’s district has to pay the first share – four times the average per-pupil spending. The state says Braintree, for example, spends an average of $11,600 for all its students, so the district would have to pay the first $46,400 for a special-ed student to be educated elsewhere.

The state would pick up 75 percent of the balance, which could be considerable if a student needed hundreds of thousands of dollars in services.

Rubin and Quincy school business manager James Mullaney said the state has raised that support in the past few years. The last recession caused it to drop as low as 42 percent due to state budget cuts.

Salim said Weymouth has “a few” students whose services cost $100,000 or more. He said the school budget has been able to cover such costs because the town council has consistently designated unspent “free cash” from the general budget for special education.

“Providing services in the district is always the goal,” Salim said.

Lane Lambert may be reached at llambert@ledger.com or follow him on Twitter @LLambert_Ledger.